Tag Archives: Secret Service

A Level Playing Field Would Be Nice

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On September 24th, The Hill reported:

The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to boost former President Trump’s level of Secret Service protection, putting it one step away from becoming law less than two weeks after he was the subject of a second assassination attempt. 

The bill, which was proposed by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) in the House days after the first assassination attempt, would require the Secret Service to “apply the same standards” to figure out how many agents should be used to protect the president, vice president, and those running for offices granted such protection. 

On Friday, The Federalist reported:

Former President Donald Trump was recently forced to cancel a campaign rally in Wisconsin because the federal task force in charge of safety denied him adequate protection resources.

On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter to the acting director of the Secret Service detailing the allegations of a whistleblower who said the event was canceled because the nation’s premier security agency lacked “sufficient assets” to keep the Republican presidential nominee safe.

“Other whistleblowers with knowledge of Secret Service planning protocols allege that failure to provide protection for a major public event is highly unusual and that a sitting president would never be denied resources in this way,” Hawley wrote.

This is disgusting. The entrenched bureaucracy is doing everything it can to elect Kamala Harris. They don’t care about her abilities or qualifications–they just want to make sure President Trump doesn’t get elected and actually drain the swamp.

What Happened On July 13th?

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On Tuesday, Legal Insurrection posted an article containing more information on the shooting of President Trump on July 13th. The information comes from Senator Josh Hawley who appeared on the Jesse Watters show on Monday night.

The article reports:

It turns out that the security lapses that day were even worse than previously thought. Hawley also stressed that this information was being shared with him because these whistleblowers are worried that this could happen again.

…The incident has led both Republicans and Democrats to intensely scrutinize the Secret Service in recent weeks. On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Hawley claimed that the lead site agent was known to be inexperienced and “incompetent.”

“The site agent, the lead agent, was known to the Trump campaign to be inexperienced, to be ineffectual, to be, frankly, incompetent at their job,” Hawley said. “I’m also told by whistleblowers that on that day, she was not enforcing the normal security protocols.”

“She was not checking people’s IDs. She did not use Secret Service agents,” Hawley added. “Most of the agents there that day were not Secret Service agents. They were Homeland Security agents.”…

“Whistleblowers are coming forward from the Secret Service because they can’t believe what leadership is doing,” Hawley said. “They cannot believe that Secret Service is not taking action to clear out the rot.”

The fact that most of the agents were Homeland Security agents rather than Secret Service agents is troubling. No one wants to view this as an inside job, but the level of incompetence is stunning.

Will Congress Actually Uncover What Happened?

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On Tuesday, Real Clear Politics posted an article about some of the decisions that may have paved the way for the assassination attempt on President Trump.

The article reports:

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers, to former President Trump’s rallies and events – despite repeated requests by the agents assigned to Trump’s detail in the two years leading up to his July 13 attempted assassination, according to several sources familiar with the decision-making.

Rowe succeeded former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned last week after bipartisan calls following her widely panned testimony before the House Oversight Committee. But both Rowe and Cheatle were directly involved in decisions denying requests for more magnetometers, additional agents, and other resources to help screen rallygoers at large, outdoor Trump campaign gatherings.

It was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance from D.C., these sources asserted.

Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate are set to appear Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees.

The article concludes:

America wasn’t a banana republic. Is it becoming one? After the years of hoaxes and lawfare, the only thing keeping us from saying it is the reserve of credibility is empty. 

Director Rowe must go. He is exactly the wrong person to be in charge of this investigation since he should be one of the people investigated. Don’t be fooled by his empty mea culpas. Admitting that there was a failure is the easiest thing to do because it is incontrovertible. He is engaged in a coverup of something, and we need answers from somebody not involved. 

Was there a government plot to assassinate the former president? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and unless you can prove that Majorkas or somebody similarly high up actually was involved in this event, I am not convinced. 

But he and those around him clearly were involved in stripping the security around Trump. They denied resources, incited violence, and waited for somebody to take an opportunity. 

And on July 13th, that happened. 

Will the security for President Trump be better in the future? I sure hope so.

Disturbing Information About The Assassination Attempt On President Trump

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On Monday morning, Red State posted an article about the preliminary report on the assassination attempt on President Trump. The report is from Senator Ron Johnson.

The article notes:

We reported on Sunday about the disturbing news that the Secret Service admitted they hadn’t provided resources when asked for the Trump detail, when they had previously denied that. Also, according to information from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) reported by Real Clear Politics’ Susan Crabtree, they delegated 12 post-standers for Jill Biden’s event in Pittsburgh versus three for Trump’s event with many more people in Butler. That, despite a known threat from the Iranians against Trump.

We had already covered the report that resources had been moved to Jill Biden from the Trump detail and that the Trump detail didn’t have a lot of their regular people on it, that there were “temps” on the detail.

The report includes a list of security failures by the Secret Service:

1.) Secret Service did not attend a security briefing provided to local special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and sniper teams the morning of July 13, 2024. Why not?–There was a 9 a.m. briefing on July 13, 2024, Butler County Emergency Services (Butler ESU) provided a security briefing for the local SWAT teams and snipers assigned to the rally. In addition to Butler County, local SWAT teams and snipers from Washington County and Beaver County were also tasked with security responsibilities.

2. Local law enforcement said communications were siloed and they were not in frequent radio contact directly with Secret Service.

3. Local law enforcement notified command about Crooks prior to the shooting and received confirmation that Secret Service was aware of the notification.

4. Following the shooting Secret Service was seen on the roof of the AGR building with local law enforcement; photos of the shooter were sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) for facial recognition.

5.) Secret Service was initially not going to send snipers to the rally, according to local law enforcement.

This is unacceptable. Someone needs to be held accountable for this failure.

A Preview Of Things To Come?

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It’s only July, and the presidential election is in November. A lot can change between now and then. The lawfare against President Trump has made him more popular, and the assassination attempt has only increased his lead in the polls. Sadly to say, I don’t expect this to be the last assassination attempt. Hopefully the Secret Service will do a better job of preventing the next one. The Democrats are in a difficult position.

Hot Air posted one of the more entertaining comments made at the Republican convention last night:

It’s time to “end the Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis (Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) declared, and to “send Joe Biden back to the basement.”

On Wednesday, The New York Post reported the following:

President Biden said in a new interview that he would consider dropping out if he was diagnosed with a “medical condition” by doctors — giving the clearest indication yet that he may be faltering in his vow to seek a second term.

The 81-year-old president made the remark in a BET interview taped Tuesday when asked what it would take to prompt him to reconsider his candidacy.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said in an excerpt released Wednesday.

In the same interview, Biden said that he feels the need to run again — rather than serve as a “transitional” leader, as he said in 2020 — because the country is “so divided.”

As far as divisiveness is concerned, President Biden has been a large part of the problem–not the solution.

The comment about stepping down for medical reasons is a very interesting change from the recent “I’m not going anywhere” statements. So what might be going on? Even though it is a long way until November, the Democrats are reading some pretty ugly writing on the wall. Even if President Biden is not aware of his poll numbers, I am sure Jill is. Does Jill want her husband defeated in a George McGovern-style rout? Even if President Biden drops out of the race on whatever excuse, who is willing to be the sacrificial lamb for this election cycle?

We have definitely come to a get-out-the-popcorn moment.

Public Pressure May Actually Tone Down The Rhetoric

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On Sunday, The New York Post reported that public outrage actually caused Forbes to remove an article from its website. Maybe we are making progress.

The article reports:

A controversial Forbes column with a headline that questioned if former President Donald Trump surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt would draw more black voters was yanked from its website amid social media backlash.

The piece, “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters,” by scholar and self-described DEI expert Shaun Harper was posted Sunday morning and quickly called out by critics on X.

The column described how black Americans face “inexcusably” high levels of gun violence, including in many urban centers, which Harper wrote Trump could address through legislation and financial investments in urban black communities.

The article concludes:

Attempts to reach the online story resulted in a 404 error, which was diverted back to the homepage.

The column was published after Trump was struck by a bullet during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, but was able to walk off the stage on his own. Three others were hit, including a 50-year-old father of two who was killed.

The would-be assassin was shot and killed by the Secret Service.

When reached by The Post, Harper said his column has been widely misinterpreted.

The Post sought comment from Forbes Sunday night.

Aside from being a new level of stupid, this article is grossly inappropriate.

Statements Like This Used To Be Investigated As Criminal

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On Sunday, Red State posted an article about a disturbing statement made by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, stated in an interview with Jen Psaki that President Trump needs to be eliminated.

The article reports:

Our friends at our sister site, Twitchy, picked up the comment. Goldman was on MSNBC with Jen Psaki. They were talking about an interview former President Donald Trump had with ABC’s Jonathan Karl. In that interview, Trump told Karl that he had wanted to go up to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot to try to stop what was going on. But Trump said the Secret Service discouraged that. The MSNBC chyron at the bottom of the screen framed that as “New audio: Trump says he wanted to join Jan. 6 crowd,” which miscasts what Trump said.

Representative Godman later tweeted an apology for ‘using the wrong word.’

The article notes:

So let’s see. Saying people should act “peacefully and patriotically” is inciting. But saying someone should be “eliminated” is just using the “wrong word.” That makes a lot of sense. The funny thing here is that had Trump said what Goldman said, Goldman would likely be encouraging people to try to prosecute him over it. But Goldman’s a Democrat, so of course, out comes the pass, and he apologizes, so everything is cool. 

The double standard is alive and well in Washington.

What Does This Man Do For A Living?

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As the President’s son, Hunter Biden is entitled to Secret Service protection. I understand that. However, because of where Hunter Biden has chosen to live, that Secret Service protection is costing taxpayers $16,000 a month simply to have the Secret Service rent a place to stay across the street from Hunter. Hunter is renting a small place in Malibu, California, for $15,800 month.

On Sunday, Chicks on the Right reported:

The astronomical cost of Hunter’s home is raising serious questions and much speculation. Hunter is partially funding his lifestyle from the sale of his paintings with New York gallerist George Berges.

Hunter has also received help fighting his financial and legal problems with help from someone who critics call his “sugar brother” identified as Hollywood mega-lawyer Kevin Morris.

Morris earned the nickname as a major Democratic donor as well as a strategic adviser for the scandal-plagued Biden family.

The article concludes:

These reports have led to renewed scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s business dealings and his relationship with his father. While Hunter Biden faces multiple federal charges, Morris not been charged with any crimes or wrongdoing.

“Morris has helped Biden maintain his allegedly lavish lifestyle, according to several reports, covering at least some of the first son’s rent and living expenses,” Fox News reports.

Morris controls Skaneateles LLC, which holds Biden’s 10% stake in BHR, Fox News reports.

The company should be called shenanigans!

 

The Most Ridiculous Excuse Yet

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On Sunday, Miranda Devine posted an article at The New York Post about the investigation into the cocaine found in the White House.

The article reported:

Of all the excuses offered by the Secret Service to explain why it shut down the White House cocaine investigation last week after just 11 days, one jumped out as particularly ridiculous. 

It couldn’t conduct interviews of potential cokeheads known to be in the vicinity of where the bag of drugs was found because it didn’t want to infringe on their civil rights, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC. 

“We have no evidence to approach them,” he said of 500 possible suspects identified in the area on the holiday weekend before July 4. 

Hah! Tell that to the hundreds of people rounded up by the FBI for just being in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

The article also notes:

Even more astonishing is that, in a complex bristling with security cameras, the Secret Service said no surveillance video footage exists because the baggie was located in a “blind spot.” 

“I don’t care if it was a six-foot blind spot,” says Kerik (former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik). “I can tell you who walked into it and who walked out of it. The whole blind spot argument is bogus.” 

He claims the Secret Service knows exactly whose cocaine it is.

“They don’t miss anything. They know their job. They are very systematic, very organized, very thorough,” he said, adding, “The whole thing is preposterous. It’s really an insult to the men and women in the Secret Service and the FBI for them to say they can’t identify where the cocaine came from.”

As the mystery dragged on into its second week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to rule out that the cocaine belonged to a member of the Biden family and slammed the question as “incredibly irresponsible.”

It’s time to replace any law enforcement personnel in Washington with people who can actually do their job.

 

 

There Really Were Visitor Records

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On Friday, NewsMax reported that there actually were records on who visited President Biden at his Delaware home.

The article reports:

The Secret Service now acknowledges that it has records on who visited President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, when classified documents were kept there.

The New York Post reported that Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday that “the Secret Service does generate law enforcement and criminal justice information records for various individuals who may come into contact with Secret Service protected sites.”

Guglielmi on Monday said the Secret Service doesn’t “independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence.”

The article notes:

Congressional Republicans asked for the logs after learning that confidential documents were found at Biden’s home.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, demanded Sunday that the White House turn over visitor logs, according to The New York Times.

“It is troubling that classified documents have been improperly stored at the home of President Biden for at least six years, raising questions about who may have reviewed or had access to classified information,” Comer wrote.

It stands to reason that anyone coming close to the President would have to be cleared by the Secret Service. It also stands to reason that there would be a record of that clearance in case the person made a repeat visit. There may not be explicit logs, but there will be a list of people who visited the President in Delaware. That list needs to be made public.

Corroborating Evidence

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The Federalist reported yesterday that Secret Service records confirm the travel dates and trips taken by Hunter Biden that were reported in the emails posted by The New York Post last week. That is not good news for the Democrats attempting to claim the emails are fake and are based on attempts by foreign governments to interfere with our election. Actually, the release of the emails was done by people who want to make sure American voters understand the history of one of the candidates for president.

The article reports:

In one email reported by the Post, sent from Hunter Biden to his business partner Devon Archer dated Apr. 13, 2014, Hunter refers to a trip to Houston slated for “tmrw.” Secret Service records released by Johnson and Grassley corroborate details of the trip with a travel entry from Hunter Biden for Apr. 13, 2014 to Apr. 14, 2014 to Houston.

In another email published by the Post, senior Burisma adviser Vadim Pozharski allegedly wrote on May 12, 2014 of a trip to Como Lake. Secret Service records reported a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Lake Como, Italy just more than a  month earlier dated Apr. 3 to Apr. 6.

“Other reports indicate that, in May 2014, Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer may have been in Doha, Qatar,” the senators wrote. “USSS records contain a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Doha, Qatar on May 11, 2014 – May 14, 2014.”

So far the attempts by people supporting Joe Biden for President to debunk the emails have failed. The biggest question in my mind is, “If the FBI took possession of the computer in December, why did we have to wait almost a year for anything on the computer to become public?” The FBI really does not look very unbiased right now.

The article notes:

The Biden campaign has not disputed the authenticity of the Post’s reported emails.

Abuse Of Power As A Way Of Life

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Yesterday the Examiner posted an interview with Tom Francois. “Who is Tom Francois?” you ask. Tom Francois is a carpenter who has been making cabinets for 38 years. When his business declined during the Obama recession, Mr. Francois began making twitter and facebook posts critical of the Obama Administration. That’s not all that unusual–I’m not on twitter, but there are a lot of people on facebook who are not fond of President Obama. To be fair, there are also a lot of people who like the President and think he is doing a good job.

However, the Secret Service chose to visit Mr. Francois. They also visited his daughter and ex-wife.

The article reports:

In an exclusive interview with the Examiner, Tom Francois said that the Secret Service acknowledged that there was no threat, but were concerned over Tom’s ‘large Twitter following.’ The bizarre rationale leads one to believe that Tom must be holding something back. But in speaking with this gentleman personally, he comes across as an articulate and rational person who simply dared to voice his outrage about the Obama administration over social media.

…The Secret Service agents asked Tom about his weapons, and whether they were loaded. This law-abiding gun owner was then delivered a thinly veiled threat that they might be taken in the future. The agents told Tom that they would hand over his ‘file’ to Eric Holder. Tom said, ‘I have been critical of Holder, as well!’

Please note that the story says that the Secret Service acknowledged that there was no threat. Then why were they visiting this person and talking about taking his guns away? I have no problem with the Secret Service following up on a possible threat, but this is simply harassing political opposition–similar to the misuse of the IRS.

This is simply wrong. So what is the solution? We have an election next year. The only way to stop this sort of abuse of power is to elect people who will hold the Obama Administration accountable. Any Democrat who does not protest this behavior should be resoundingly voted out of office. That is the only way this behavior will be stopped.

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It’s Hard To Be A Successful Liar In The Internet World

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One of the side effects of the Internet is that it is very easy to check to see what people have said in the past and it is also relatively easy to find people who have knowledge of specific situations. It is also very easy for people who have knowledge of specific situations to share their knowledge with the public.

Yesterday Breitbart.com posted an article quoting Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino on the cancellation of the White House tours. “The president’s absolutely not telling the truth when he said the Secret Service made that decision to cut [the White House] tours,” Bongino said. “That’s the core of it: he is not telling the truth.”

The article reports:

“The Secret Service does not make political decisions,” Bongino said. “The Secret Service makes security decisions. His statement that it was a Secret Service decision internal budget decision–and keep in mind, I’m not speaking for the Secret Service, I’m speaking from experience of being with them. All he’d have to do is cancel one or two of his political trips and his Martha’s Vineyard vacation, which two years ago I was on and helped coordinate, he would save that money times ten. There was just no way this was a sound decision. To insinuate this is the first administration where the White House social office and the Executive Office of the President had no role in cancelling public tours at the White House, that he was the first president who was left out of the decision, is absolute nonsense.”

President Obama is rapidly destroying any credibility that he might have had when he took office. It is a small lie, but it is a lie. It would be nice if President Obama would at least admit that he made the decision.Enhanced by Zemanta

There Really Is A Double Standard

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Nugent in concert in Naples, Italy, June 1, 2004

Nugent in concert in Naples, Italy, June 1, 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Investor’s Business Daily posted an editorial about the recent comments by Ted Nugent which have resulted in his being asked to have a chat with the Secret Service. Ted Nugent is a bit outrageous in style in anything he does, and his political speeches tend to be direct and somewhat colorful. The Secret Service is concerned (lately, it seems to me, they have more important things to be concerned about).

The article reports:

Attempting to rally fellow NRA members already agitated by the administration’s push for gun control and its disregard for life and law in Operation Fast and Furious, Nugent told fellow Second Amendment devotees that “we are patriots, we are ‘Braveheart.'” He also said, “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.”

Maybe I just don’t understand how things work, but I don’t think that means he will be riding a horse down Pennsylvania Avenue in November.

The article reminds of us some recent statements by those on the left side of the political spectrum:

Did anyone in the liberal universe or administration take note when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said at Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday that “people tomorrow, maybe in a few days, are gonna kill their leaders who’ve been selling them out”?

The Justice Department threw out the case against the New Black Panthers who actually were intimidating voters in Philadelphia with real billy clubs. Why are they so concerned about Ted Nugent’s words. He is a rather flamboyant character to begin with and expresses his political ideas and philosophy in his own style. It would be very interesting to be a fly on the wall when the ‘chat’ with the Secret Service occurs.

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